mysterious water leak

[Xfirepop]

Hi All! Another problem on CC Rider....again. I have a 200 gallon fresh water tank onboard and it leaks. I mean really leaks. All 200 gallons are gone in about 8 hrs. I have to shut off the pressure pump after using the system to have any water when I want to use it. It holds what is in there, so no tank leak. I have damn near dismantled the entire interior to find the leak and have found nothing. I even hired a very experienced technician to look for it. Neither one of us found even a drip. just dust under every sink, shower toilet, fitting and connection. I've crawled down into the bow and stern, torn the toilets out to get to all the fittings and traced the entire pressure line system behind the closets, in the engine room back to the pump and tank....just dust. I can hear the small bilge pump kicking in every 20 minutes and pumping water overboard and the pressure pump comes on every 10 minutes or so. Xanex isn't even working anymore....HELP. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[DDW]

You can try to isolate the supply lines by disconnecting and plugging everywhere there is a Tee. The other thing to try is get the bilge dry, then position paper towels at various likely places. The blue ones work best for this because they turn very dark as soon as they get wet. If the water is ending up in the bilge pump, you should be able to trace back where it is coming from if it starts dry.

 

[Xfirepop]

Great ideas, I'll get the plugs and towels and start that procedure. I've also ordered a bottle of red dye to see if that can help. Thanks

 

[tiltrider1]

You can always follow the water. The bilge is filling up. So where is the bilge getting its water? Start looking around the edge of the bilge water until you find a stream of water flowing in. Then start following that stream.

 

[cafesport]

So without an outlet manifold you have a bit of work to do. Since the water seems to be causing the bilge pump to run your leak is probably on an inlet valve or t somewhere. If your boat has whale fittings give each inlet hose a twist clockwise and counter clockwise. I remember a boat I was delivering south in November from North Carolina. There was a hard freeze overnight and the cockpit sink inlet hose froze. The water expansion pushed the hose off the fitting. We lost 200 gallons overnight and since we were underway we didn’t really pay attention to the bilge pump cycles as it was pretty rough out.

 

[Bmarler]

I’d also think about whether or not there was a sink up on the flybridge. might be a leaky pipe up there?

 

[Comodave]

If you can’t see any water leaking and it only leaks out under pressure then I would do as suggested above and start breaking the water system into smaller chunks. If a chunk doesn’t leak then add a bit more until it starts to leak again. Then you know it is in the last section that was added.

 

[Mainship Pilot]

An old trick is pour a small bottle of food dye into your tank, let's say Red or yellow, then after you did the above suggestions, follow the yellow brick road.

 

[ranger58sb]

Since the water seems to be causing the bilge pump to run your leak is probably on an inlet valve or t somewhere.

I have to shut off the pressure pump after using the system to have any water when I want to use it. It holds what is in there, so no tank leak

If the leak is on the outlet side, I'd think the freshwater pump would run periodically to maintain pressure... and I think that's what you're saying, yes?

-Chris

 

[Don L]

How's the level in your engine coolant expansion tank? Is the exhaust muffler filling with water?

200 gals in 8 hours is a pretty big leak, If you can not see any flow into the bilge and the small bilge pump is only running once in a while, you need to be thinking where can the water be going. Like ...................... the water heater engine loop.

 

[Xfirepop]

Just a short update. One more tech looked at system and agreed that more of the insides need to be torn apart. The joy of an Aft cabin. Need to pull the bed up to see hull in the aft section. The red dye will be here tomorrow and I have some Pex plumbing plugs in hand to start installing in strategic locations. Ranger58sb: yes the pressure pump runs almost in synch with the bilge pump. I turn pump off when water is not needed and the water level never drops during that time period.

 

[tiltrider1]

Do you have a fresh water shower on your stern?

 

[CaptTom]

I'm not sure how the dye will help here. I'm thinking if the stream of water is large enough to run the pumps regularly, the water itself is going to be pretty visible. And if it's in a totally hidden location, you're not learning anything by pumping colored bilge water.

One thing which sometimes helps is to just listen. Not always, but if it's quiet enough you might just hear the stream of pressurized water hitting something, or hissing, or even just dripping.

 

[bil56]

De quel matériau est fait le réservoir ?

 

[rgano]

200 gallons gone in 8 hours is around a half gallon a minute. That's a huge leak and should be easily found once you have access to the bilge. However, if you do not want to tear up the boat, you could always start over from the pump's outlet (you did say that the tank does not leak down with the pump off) with PEX and have a new and better system.

 

[coastalcruiser]

Hi All! Another problem on CC Rider....again. I have a 200 gallon fresh water tank onboard and it leaks. I mean really leaks. All 200 gallons are gone in about 8 hrs. I have to shut off the pressure pump after using the system to have any water when I want to use it. It holds what is in there, so no tank leak. I have damn near dismantled the entire interior to find the leak and have found nothing. I even hired a very experienced technician to look for it. Neither one of us found even a drip. just dust under every sink, shower toilet, fitting and connection. I've crawled down into the bow and stern, torn the toilets out to get to all the fittings and traced the entire pressure line system behind the closets, in the engine room back to the pump and tank....just dust. I can hear the small bilge pump kicking in every 20 minutes and pumping water overboard and the pressure pump comes on every 10 minutes or so. Xanex isn't even working anymore....HELP. Thanks for any ideas.

We were not able to find out what was leaking in our old 36’ trawler until we got our bilge completely dry, which was really hard with our regular bilge pump so we bought the bilge b dry 2 pump system to get all the water out instead of constantly using wet dry vac. Our water tank had a hairline crack that was finally visible

 

[captainjimmetcalfe]

I had a similar problem. After doing a bit of searching around I found that the pressure relief valve on the hot water tank was open. So water was running out of the hot water tank via the Overflow line into the bilge. And then the bilge pump took care of the rest. I replaced the pressure relief valve, which is a pressure and temperature relief valve, and problem solved. You might want to look into that before you start tearing apart your cabin

 

[hip82]

Do you have a fresh water shower on your stern?

I recently had a leak from there. Drained into the lazarette, which found a path to drain into the aft bilge. Leaking supply valve in the aft head which drained through a disconnected cockpit shower. Also recently had a big leak from a tee that supplied the engine room hose.

 

[CP Edmunds]

Hi All! Another problem on CC Rider....again. I have a 200 gallon fresh water tank onboard and it leaks. I mean really leaks. All 200 gallons are gone in about 8 hrs. I have to shut off the pressure pump after using the system to have any water when I want to use it. It holds what is in there, so no tank leak. I have damn near dismantled the entire interior to find the leak and have found nothing. I even hired a very experienced technician to look for it. Neither one of us found even a drip. just dust under every sink, shower toilet, fitting and connection. I've crawled down into the bow and stern, torn the toilets out to get to all the fittings and traced the entire pressure line system behind the closets, in the engine room back to the pump and tank....just dust. I can hear the small bilge pump kicking in every 20 minutes and pumping water overboard and the pressure pump comes on every 10 minutes or so. Xanex isn't even working anymore....HELP. Thanks for any ideas.

Sorry to hear about your problem. We have a 1980 MC44 that we have had for a year. I had a similar issue this spring when I de-winterized, only in that case, the pressure pump would not go off...and I couldn't find the leak. I had completely forgotten about the sink that is on the aft deck. Of course, the cabinet was stuffed with all our towels, etc. We only found it after all the towels were soaked and the carpet outside was wet. What I found was that the base of the faucet had frozen during the winter.

I was having similar mysterious "floodings" of the bilge that I thought were related to the water tank or pressurized water system. I suspected drains and lines at first - and all were fine. Yours sounds more ominous! Having gone through our water system, another item to check is the water heater (as noted in another response), Water from a leaking pressure relief valve could also find a pathway directly into the bilge which would make detection of a leaking valve difficult. It would also have the potential to drain the tank if the pressure pump is left on.

My issue turned out to be an anchor wash down pump with loose clamps on the pressure side of the pump that was routed to an incorrectly labeled switch at the DC control panel. It was leaking whenever the switch was energized and 2-3 inches of water would show up in the bilge for no apparent reason. In that case, the pump was drawing from a thru-hull under the Vee berth. I have everything solved for now. Then when our water ran out, I found that the water pump will not prime from the Main water tank even after putting 50-60 gallons of water in, but primes properly from the aft tank. I suspect I have a cracked or broken line going from the valve under the galley sink to the tank. Guess that will be another project!

 

[SteveK]

I had a much less leakage, occasional pressure pump activity. After looking around and not immediately finding a source I added inline shut offs to the outgoing lines. That led me to the extremities of the boat. I had two (port/SB) shore fill connections and a fresh water wash in lazaret on the line that fed these three where the leak was isolated. Getting to the shore fill locations inside was a mission, found one leaking just inside, assumed the other could be as well. Now that line is shut off all the time. BTW, the first installed was input to hot water tanks.
It took 2-3 inline shut offs to narrow down where to look.

 

[Capt Dan]

Hi All! Another problem on CC Rider....again. I have a 200 gallon fresh water tank onboard and it leaks. I mean really leaks. All 200 gallons are gone in about 8 hrs. I have to shut off the pressure pump after using the system to have any water when I want to use it. It holds what is in there, so no tank leak. I have damn near dismantled the entire interior to find the leak and have found nothing. I even hired a very experienced technician to look for it. Neither one of us found even a drip. just dust under every sink, shower toilet, fitting and connection. I've crawled down into the bow and stern, torn the toilets out to get to all the fittings and traced the entire pressure line system behind the closets, in the engine room back to the pump and tank....just dust. I can hear the small bilge pump kicking in every 20 minutes and pumping water overboard and the pressure pump comes on every 10 minutes or so. Xanex isn't even working anymore....HELP. Thanks for any ideas.

Just think how much you are learning about your boat!

 

[Xfirepop]

Hooray! My first mate and angel found the leak. There is a section of plumbing that runs under the steps to the engine room, the Only non accessible 3 ft section on the boat. She saw a bit of steam coming out of a small hole. Already have it bypassed and working good! Too quote a sailing philosopher..."something bout a boat
..."!
Thank you all for the help and tips!!

 

[AlanT]

I had a much less leakage, occasional pressure pump activity. After looking around and not immediately finding a source I added inline shut offs to the outgoing lines. That led me to the extremities of the boat. I had two (port/SB) shore fill connections and a fresh water wash in lazaret on the line that fed these three where the leak was isolated. Getting to the shore fill locations inside was a mission, found one leaking just inside, assumed the other could be as well. Now that line is shut off all the time. BTW, the first installed was input to hot water tanks.
It took 2-3 inline shut offs to narrow down where to look.

I really like that approach! Adding shut offs not only helps narrow down the search without tearing the boat apart, it also provides one with redundancy for the future knowing you can easily isolate a water circuit.

 

[ronobrien]

You can always follow the water. The bilge is filling up. So where is the bilge getting its water? Start looking around the edge of the bilge water until you find a stream of water flowing in. Then start following that stream.

Precisely. If tracing from the source isn't working, go to the destination and work back.

 

[jgwinks]

I had a similar problem. After doing a bit of searching around I found that the pressure relief valve on the hot water tank was open. So water was running out of the hot water tank via the Overflow line into the bilge. And then the bilge pump took care of the rest. I replaced the pressure relief valve, which is a pressure and temperature relief valve, and problem solved. You might want to look into that before you start tearing apart your cabin

The T&P valves are prone to sticking open. It's a metal/metal seal and any crud in there will make it leak, and likely score the seal so cleaning it might not help. I remember the last time I installed a WH in the house the instructions said to never open the TP valve for that reason. I do open the valve on mine but only for winter storage and after turning off the pump, draining the rest of the system, and opening the drain valve. Nothing comes out the TP valve that way.